That was Jorge De La Rosa’s best quote after he no-hit the Padres for six innings and shut them out for seven in the Rockies’ 3-1 victory Friday night at Coors Field.

The lefty was talking about his lower back that stiffened up on him again when he sprinted to first base in the fifth inning on a ball he hit to San Diego second baseman Jedd Gyorko. Gyrko booted the ball for an error and De La Rosa’s hustle allowed Jordan Pacheco to race home from third for the first run of the game.

De La Rosa also was talking about the swollen middle finger of his left hand, an injury that flared up as the game went along

Rockies pitcher Jorge De La Rosa has a swollen middle finger on his left hand. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)

“His finger got swollen, but he seems to pitch well with those nagging injuries,” manager Walt Weiss said. “Jorge was great tonight.”

It remains to be seen if either the back tightness or the finger issue will sidelined the left-hander, but the Rockies were confident late Friday night that De La Rosa will be fine for his next start.

De La Rosa, all of his pitches working in concert, threw 59 of 89 pitches for strikes and got 11 outs on groundballs.

He was pitching on eight days rest after his scheduled start on Tuesday at Kansas City was pushed back because of stiffness in his lower back.

Coors Field intimidates a lot of pitchers, but not De La Rosa. He is now 3-0 with a 2.82 ERA in four starts at Coors Field this season and 13-1 with a 2.77 ERA since the start of the 2012 season. In his career at Coors, De La Rosa is 38-12 with a 4.13 ERA.

After a sluggish start to the season, the lefty is certainly on a roll, pitching like the Rockies projected he would when they picked up his $11 million option. De La Rosa won his fifth consecutive start. His winning streak is the second-longest winning streak in consecutive starts in his career. (The longest was six, last season from Aug. 9 to Sept. 4.)

Friday marked the second time in his career that De La Rosa has taken a no-hitter into the seventh inning. He also did it last year on May 12 in St. Louis when he pitched 6 2/3 innings of no-hit ball.

Late-night notes of note:

* For the second game in a row, one of the Rockies’ stars was ejected for arguing balls and strikes. Wednesday in Kansas City it was Troy Tulowitzki who got the heave-ho. Friday night it was third baseman Nolan Arenado who was ejected in the bottom of the eighth for arguing with home plate umpire Seth Buckminster.

In the wake of a victory that snapped the Rockies’ three-game losing streak, Weiss was diplomatic about the incident.

“I don’t know exactly what (Arenado) said, but (Buckminster) did what he did,” Weiss said.

When it was noted the even usually mild-mannered second baseman DJ LeMahieu gave a look of disbelief after a strike call by Buckminster, Weiss said: “You know, I thought for much of the night (Buckminster) did a good job. The guys questioned some calls there late, but we won the game.”

* Drew Stubbs is starting to earn his $4.1 million salary. He started in center field and went 2-for-4 with a double and also stole two bases. He has recorded multiple hits in each of his last three home games.

It was Stubbs’ first multi-stolen base game of the season and 16th of his career. He had just one multi-steal game in 2013 with the Indians.

* DJ LeMahieu doubled in the fifth and singled in the seventh for his eight multi-hit game of the season. The No. 8 hole hitter is now batting .282.

* Troy Tulowitzki went 1-for-3 as his averaged dropped to .389, but he stole his first base of the season. His sixth-inning theft of second base was his first stolen base this season. He has just one stolen base in 2013 (July 23 vs. Miami) and two in 2012 (April 21 at Milwaukee and May 30 vs. Houston).

* The Padres lost for the ninth time this season allowing three or fewer runs, most such losses in the National League.

Patrick, a third-generation Colorado native, is back for his second stint covering the Rockies. He first covered the team from 2005-2009, helping chronicle “Rocktober” in 2007 and also following the team’s playoff run in 2009.

Nick Groke has worked at The Denver Post since 1997, as a sports reporter, city reporter, entertainment writer and digital editor and producer, among other newsroom posts. He also writes regularly about boxing, soccer, MMA and NASCAR.